Phenobarbital - Experiences?

[Guest Murphys_mom]

Hi,

 

Murphy's been having seizures for the past 2 years or so, and after having three seizures recently, our vet recently suggested putting him on phenobarbital.

 

Does anyone have any experience with this or other seizure meds? I'm reading quite a bit about it and find sites that speak of the liver damage it can bring on. Our vet is putting him on the lowest dosage possible (we are picking it up today after thinking about it for a few days) and suggested blood work to check his levels after 5-6 weeks and then every 6 months thereafter.

 

Any help/experiences/support you can provide would be greatly appreciated. I'm so saddened to have to put him on medications, but on the flip side, I don't want him having more and more seizures going forward.

 

 

 

[Guest JudiK]

Hi,

 

Murphy's been having seizures for the past 2 years or so, and after having three seizures recently, our vet recently suggested putting him on phenobarbital.

 

Does anyone have any experience with this or other seizure meds? I'm reading quite a bit about it and find sites that speak of the liver damage it can bring on. Our vet is putting him on the lowest dosage possible (we are picking it up today after thinking about it for a few days) and suggested blood work to check his levels after 5-6 weeks and then every 6 months thereafter.

 

Any help/experiences/support you can provide would be greatly appreciated. I'm so saddened to have to put him on medications, but on the flip side, I don't want him having more and more seizures going forward.

 

My seizure dog died in March - from osteo, not the seizures. I had her less than a year, so my experience is limited. Our vet tried potassium bromide first because she felt that it was milder than phenobarb. Rose's life was pretty normal on the potassium bromide, but the seizures remained unaffected. When Doc added the phonobarb Rose was always hungry and she peed a lot - I had to leave wee-wee pads around the house, but even two of them couldn't soak up the volume of pee. I think that the phenobarb lowered her quality of life and it never stopped the seizures either. She continued to have them about every 2 weeks. i hope you have better luck. You should join the seizure dog listserve - http://www.canine-epilepsy.com - and talk to Jillys FullHouse, those were two wonderful resources for me.

Edited May 29, 2008 by JudiK

[Guest janiesmom]

My Janie has been on Phenobarbitol for 1 1/2 yrs. in varying doses combined with Potassium bromide for seizures. That wasn't controlling her seizures very well so she saw a specialist and is on a keppra drug called Levetiracetam as well since March. She hasn't had a seizure for 6 weeks since Apr. and she usually had 2 per month so hopefully we have finally found the right combination. If she is seizure free for 6 months then he will reduce the pheno. It has taken a lot of trial and error getting the right dosage, if there is such a thing. I think it will always be a juggle depending on her levels. Presently she is on 200 mg. 2 x day of pheno and 4 ml. of pot. br. 2 x day and 500 mg. of keppra 5 x day. She gets her blood checked every 6 weeks so the vet keeps track of her pheno and Pot. br. levels. She tolerates all this well and is her old spunky self. She is an 8 yr. old female approx. 73 lbs. I would rather her be on meds than have the grand mal seizures.

Hope you hear from others as well. I have heard that pheno and pot. bromide are common seizure meds.

 

Heather and Janie

Vernon, B.C.

[Guest luckydog]

I had a mixed breed dog who had idiopathic seizures (meaning the cause of the seizures was unknown). She was on pheno for years, to no ill effect. The medication did cut down drastically the number of seizures she had, and she died at 14 from lymphatic cancer.

 

All medications have side effects. You have to weigh the good that the meds do against the *potential* bad.

[Guest MZH]

Hi and welcome to Greytalk.

 

It might be helpful to you if you go to the "enter keywords" box, type in seizures, and click search topic. You'll find 15 pages on seizures. Lots of good info here! But don't worry; we're here in the present for you.

 

Yep, we had a seizure dog too. The pheno made him loopy for quite a while but it, along with sodium bromide, controlled it pretty well. Not perfect but way better than without it. We tested pheno and bromide levels every 3 to 6 months, depending on how he was acting.

[Guest Peanut]

HI, yep... i have experience with it in greyhounds and humans (my sister). We monitor levels as recommended in the pups and give milk thistle to protect / flush the medicine out of the liver. I've seen great success in all the greyhounds we've had on it. Offers stability, if it can be found. My Natalie wasn't stable, on 3 meds even. But, that wasn't the fault of the phenobarb.

[greysmom]

Our Libby also had idiopathic seizures, which we knew when we adopted her. In the beginning, her seizures weren't that bad (lots of drooling, staring, muscle spasms, and she'd collapse to lie on the floor for exactly 10 minutes every time). They came 6-8 weeks apart with sometimes more time in between. Then last year the seizures started come closer and closer together, until she "clustered" and had one a day for four days.

 

Our vet put her on the lowest phenobarb dose. She was a little sleepier for about two weeks and a lot thirstier (and therefore had to go out more) permanently, but she didn't have another seizure. We lost her in January at age 10 to non-seizure-related factors. I wouldn't hesitate to have another seizure dog. You just have to keep an eye on their bloodwork once you get the right dosage and combinations of meds.

 

If Murphy's seizures are not grand mal you might discuss using potassium bromide first. It's less sedating and many dogs have success with it.

 

greysmom

[Saffron]

My nine year old Murphy (Murphy P) is on pheno and has been for several years, although we have only had him since last November. He came here as a foster (having lost his previous home) prescribed 60 mgs per day to control for "mild seizures" by his previous vet. He is now a permanent member of this family and we monitor levels every 6 months. The dose is apparently low, but as we have never yet seen even a mild seizure my vet is of the opinion that *if it ain't broke don't fix it.*

 

I also used pheno long-term with a cocker spaniel mix. She had grand mal seizures, but lived for years with the seizures controlled and died at a ripe old age (15) from causes unrelated.

 

Gillian

Catwalk, Pilgrim and Murphy P

 

 

 

 

[Guest vahoundlover]

My mix terrier has been on pheno for 10 yrs, we added potassium bromide about 7 years ago. He'll be 13 in a couple of days. He has a seizure maybe every 6 months if that.

[Guest MZH]

A "me too" regarding milk thistle. When we started giving it to Cullen we found that his liver values were cut in half by about 3 months later. They were still higher than normal but ever so much better than without it. We gave him a milk thistle twice a day. We lost him to cancer just before his 10th birthday and not from the late-onset epilepsy, which started when he was 2 weeks shy of 8.

[6greyhounds]

We have our Belle on Phenobarbital (1 grain) my vet does not want her on anything else yet. She had 3 in 6 weeks and was on the meds for a month did blood work and more in 6 months. On April 15 the day of her last seizure they did a full blood work up to get a base line. If you search here on this message board there is a lot of information on seizures and even search under epilepsy.

 

 

Edited May 30, 2008 by 6greyhounds

[TheFullHouse]

Phenobarbital works very well in controlling seizures at the right dose. if you worried about the effects on the liver, you can supplement with Milk Thistle, this will help support the liver. Saint has been on Pheno for over 3 years now, a pretty high dose also 600mg. a day and his liver is just fine. You can also try Potassium Bromide, that works well also. If you look at the link in my siggy it will take you to a wonderful site on seizures and meds.

[Trudy]

Ryan has been on Pb for 4 years and KBr for 2+ years.

His liver still checks out fine.

[Guest EmilyAnne]

Potassium Bromide takes longer to reach a therapeutic level, so vets often start out with pheno first, to get faster results. Side effects generally are not problematic unless you combine the two, and even then, if you ride it out, the negative side effects tend to fade.

 

Henry is on potassium bromide, no side effects as far as I can tell.

[LBass]

My Piper and I have all too much experience with seizures meds, including Phenobarbital. Do remember that while liver damage is a possibility with Pb, the vast majority of dogs taking that medication never have liver issues at all. The best approach to safeguarding your dog from liver damage is to monitor liver function through regular testing. The liver is a resilient organ and can do a great deal to heal itself so, if your dog is going to have problems with the PB, you and your vet can catch any issues early by testing regularly and can make medication changes. You should be able to avoid any lasting liver damage even if your dog is one of those who has trouble taking Pb.

 

I have Piper's liver function tested about every 6 months using the older serum bile acids test. It involves 2 blood draws, one fasting and one after a meal. There is also a urine bile acid test that can be used as an alternative (no blood draws). With regular monitoring, you'll be able to catch any possible liver damage early enough to avoid serious problems.

 

The much more common side effects of Pb are lots of eating, lots of drinking, lots of peeing, and some ataxia. Piper always had a couple of weeks of peeing at odd times and not being able to hold urine when he started Pb or got a dosage increase. He also developed some of the hind end clumsiness that is pretty typical for dogs taking Pb. In general, these side effects tend to improve over time as the dog's metabolism adapts and adjusts.

 

Best wishes to you and your hound in managing the seizures.

 

--Lucy and Piper (11 weeks seizure free!)

 

 

[6greyhounds]

Phenobarbital works very well in controlling seizures at the right dose. if you worried about the effects on the liver, you can supplement with Milk Thistle, this will help support the liver. Saint has been on Pheno for over 3 years now, a pretty high dose also 600mg. a day and his liver is just fine. You can also try Potassium Bromide, that works well also. If you look at the link in my siggy it will take you to a wonderful site on seizures and meds.

So glad you posted here as you were so helpful to me with Belle so far no seizures and her blood test is normal. I will get the pics of the pads in her crate hopefull this weekend posted

 

thanks again for all your help

[Guest Murphys_mom]

Thanks everyone for all of your info! I'm so happy to hear of others with their pups on phenobarbital too.

 

We did end up starting Murphy on it on Friday after all. He has a vet visit in 4 weeks to see how he's doing and check his blood/levels and then they suggest every 6 months (I may cut it back to every 4 months for the first year or so because I'm a worry-wart). I read on some sites where people were very against phenobarbital, but the more I read, it seems apparent that as long as you monitor their blood levels consistantly, the risk of damange greatly decreases since it can be caught early. We definitely plan to do that.

 

So far he seems fine. He's on a low dosage (1 grain) twice a day and we really haven't seen very many side effects yet. He's a slight bit sleepier than normal, but not much different at all, really.

 

He's had grand mal seizures for the past year and a half or so. At first, they were very random, no more than 1 every 1-2 months (but he would also go for long stretches without any) but then he had two in April and one in early May.

 

Thanks again - it's great to know you are all here to give advice and offer support when needed. I appreciate it!!!